Monday, August 21, 2006

Peanut Butter Goodness

I love peanut butter. I am one of those people happy to sit and eat it straight out of a jar.

I love it paired with jam, jelly or honey...and if none of those are around, a little bit of crunchy sugar goes well too ;) PB and chocolate is always a favorite, and it's not bad with sliced apples...of course, on occasion, I have been known to eat it paired with Marshmallow Cream (I can't get Fluff out here).

This past weekend, I figured I'd try my hand at Peanut Butter Ice Cream - after all, Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup is one of my favorite flavors - and I had more than enough half and half in the fridge.

Adapted from Kitchen Chick as I don't keep whole milk or cream in the house (and I find both of those to create a too-rich ice cream for my tastes).

Peanut Butter Ice Cream
ingredients
1 cup peanut butter (I used Jif Extra Crunchy)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk (I used skim!)
1 1/3 cups half and half
2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Combine the peanut butter and sugar until smooth. Add the milk. Blend on low speed until smooth and the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the half and half and the vanilla until well mixed.

Chill the mixture overnight

Pour into your prepared ice cream maker and enjoy!

Yield: approximately 1 quart

Comments: The Extra Crunchy Peanut butter gave great taste, but if you don't like the crunch of the peanuts or find them distracting, you might want to cut the amount with regular Creamy style peanut butter...The ice cream came out to soft serve consistency in my machine - so I scooped it into a separate container for "ripening" to get it to a normal ice cream consistency. The ice cream goes great with hot fudge or hot ganache ;)